About

Muckrakers

2007 AP English Language FRQ (Question 2: Muckrakers)A muckraker is known to be an individual who “searches pit and publicly exposes real or apparent misconduct of a prominent individual or business.” The issue on whether a muckraker goes too far in their trivial pursuits or if they expose a just amount of lies can be debated. Muckrakers are responsible for many moments in history, in which government and/or businesses have been taken accountable for corruption in the United States. These brave journalists are one of the only people left that can police powerful industry leaders and even the government itself. In almost every case, journalists who expose such misconduct do not go too far. Their actions bring down corrupt politicians, criminal business leaders, and cheating athletes.

Politicians have a history of corruption. Clearly the most historically publicized event involving media revealing corruption is the Watergate Scandal. The Watergate Scandal is an important event of history that was documented by muckrakers and subsequently led to the president of the United States resigning. President Nixon was a paranoid man with many insecurities. He ordered the installation of cameras and recording devices into the Watergate hotel to record the conversations of other political parties. They were eventually caught and he was publically sabotaged. His political career was ended quicker due to the constant investigation on the issue by the truth-seeking journalists of his time. The blatant hypocrisy of the government would have gone on without public awareness. It should be a crime in and of itself to simply let them go unpunished. Muckrakers play a valuable role in bringing down corrupt politicians.

Political corruption pales in comparison to business corruption. Wealthy CEO’s commit any crime necessary to remain so. The Enron corporation scandal revealed by the media displays this belief vividly. Facing bankruptcy, the people in power at Enron unhesitantly...

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...Muckrakers were early twentieth-century reformers whose 1
mission was to look for and uncover political and business corruption.
The term muckraker, which referred to the "man with a muckrake"
in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, was first used in a pejorative
sense by Theodore Roosevelt, whose opinion of the muckrakers was
that they were biased and overreacting. The movement began about
1902 and died down by 1917. Despite its brief duration, however, it
had a significant impact on the political, commercial, and even literary
climate of the period. 2
Many popular magazines featured articles whose purpose was 3
to expose corruption. Some of these muckraking periodicals included
The Arena, Everybody's, The Independent, and McClure's. Lincoln
Steffens, managing editor of McClure's (and later associate editor of
American Magazine and Everybody's), was an important leader of
the muckraking movement. Some of his exposés were collected in his
1904 book The Shame of the Cities and in two other volumes, and
his 1931 autobiography also discusses the corruption he uncovered
and the development of the muckraking movement. Ida Tarbell,
another noted muckraker, wrote a number of articles for McClure's,
some of which were gathered in her 1904 book The History of the
Standard Oil Company.
Muckraking appeared in fiction as...

...﻿Name: Shania Satterfield
Date: 1.14.14
Graded Assignment
Muckrakers Under the Microscope
Muckrakers were investigative journalists who exposed corruption in business or government, or examined serious societal issues. Several of the most well-known muckrakers worked for McClure’s Magazine, where they wrote exposés on large companies, meat slaughtering houses, and city governments. These prominent and influential reporters included Ida M. Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, and Ray Stannard Baker.
Now suppose that you, too, are an investigative journalist. Instead of choosing a business or government, you have been asked to write a piece on one of the muckrakers. Which muckraker will you investigate? And how much information will you be able to provide?
(100 points)
Score
1. Write a well-constructed article on one muckraker using the outline you created during your website research. Keep the following points in mind as you write your essay:
Include important biographical information about the individual’s life.
Give specific examples of articles and books that were written. What businesses or government offices were targeted in the exposés?
What reforms or changes took place as a result of the individual’s writings?
Answer:
Muckraking was a powerful journalistic force, whose supporters made it become so. Muckraking was the practice of writers and critics...

...DJ Geary
6/10/13
English11b
5.02
1. Define the term "Muckraker." Be sure to include the name of the person who created it.
Muckrackers were American novelists and journalists in the first decade of the twentieth century that exposed corruptions in big business and government.
2. Naturalism was a literary movement of the late 19th century that was an extension of Realism. What was the main focus of the Naturalistic writer?
Naturalists wrote about the fringes of society, the criminal, the fallen, and the down-and-out.
3. American Realists believed that humanity's freedom of choice was limited by the power of outside forces. How would this view differ from the perspective of the Romantic writer (think of someone like Emerson)?
Romanticism stressed the value of expressing human abilities that were common to all from birth rather than from training.
4. In your opinion, based on what you have read, why would post Civil War, newly industrialized America be attracted to the Realistic movement?
I believe that the newly industrialized America would be attracted to the Realistic movement because the country was changing so greatly and so quickly that people were being pulled along whether they wanted to or not. They would feal connected with realists because they wrote about the struggles of everyday life.
5. What is meant by the term "local color"?
Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters,...

...Fee, Rhiannon
1.) Define the term "Muckraker." Give me some examples of modern-day muckrakers. Be sure to include the name of the person who created it.
A modern-day Muckraker is like a man named James O’Keefe. ACORN is an advocacy organization for people of low and moderate income. Well in 2009 his assistant posed as a prostitute and James was acting as her boyfriend. The hidden videos they took showed low-level ACORN employees in six cities giving advice to Giles and O’Keefe on how to avoid detection by authorities of tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution. Congress then voted to freeze federal funding to ACORN and the Census Bureau and the IRS terminated their contract with ACORN.
http://jkmccarthy.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/james-okeefe-a-modern-day-muckraker/
2.) What was the main focus of the Naturalistic writer? Be sure to tell me how this relates to Natural Law, Social Darwinism, and "survival of the fittest."
Naturalism writers show the world in a negative way. Naturalist writers aren't interested in individuality the way the realists are. They don't think it's the individual's place to change the world. They want to show people how and what big corporations’ are doing to the people to manipulate us.
http://faculty.bucks.edu/docarmos/RealismNaturalism.html
3.) Why would post Civil War, newly industrialized America be attracted to the Realistic movement? (hint: they wanted to...

...Investigative journalism has established that in order to keep societal values sincere to a nation and not have them corrupted by big business, the government needs to regulate business affairs. Yet, no matter the time period, muckrakers, such as Helen Hunt Jackson and Morgan Spurlock, have been able to passionately investigate and expose these issues concerning American values, in order to evoke a social reform. For Jackson, she began her writing career because of depression and loneliness. After simply attending a lecture on the mistreatment of the Ponca Indians, Jackson became devoted to changing the way the government treated them. The American Government at the time supported the Railroad companies that were kicking the Native Americans off their homes. Jackson thought this was despicable and began advocating for a change in the government relations with the Native Americans. Morgan Spurlock on the other hand, became festered with exposing the harmful effects of McDonald’s directly, after learning about a failed lawsuit attempt against them. The government protected the rights of the McDonald’s corporation in the lawsuit because they felt that the two girls had no evidence to back up their claims of the food being made so cheaply, that it was causing serious heath defects such as obesity. In his documentary “Supersize Me”, Spurlock exposes the harmful food of McDonald’s. Both Jackson and Spurlock, tackle capitalism as it tries to corrupt the American...

...Muckrakers
The term “muckraker” was originally coined in a speech in 1906 accredited to President Theodore Roosevelt. It was alluding to the man with the Muck-Rake in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Process. The Man with the Muck rake seeks material advances by raking filth. Roosevelt defined this term as "one who inquires into and publishes scandal and allegations of corruption among political and business leaders". Muckrakers in the Progressive Era, a time from 1820 until 1920 when America quickly industrialized, pushed for reform and have altered the way we live today. These reformers brought about the awareness and tackled women’s rights, economic concentration, corporate power, poverty, food safety, and political corruption. Extraordinary muckrakers are Jane Addams, Carrie Chapman Catt, Upton Sinclair, Alice Paul, and Edwin Markham.
Jane Addams was an advocate for the rights of improving social conditions in the urban areas for the poor immigrants and workers living in slums. People living in the slums had to live in terrible conditions. Large households were living in a small, cramped living space in tenements that were overcrowded with people. Young children were sent to work along with their parents in order to provide daily meals to feed their families and there was no sanitation. In 1889, Addams along with her college classmate and friend Ellen Gates Starr founded the Hull House. This was a famous...

...President Theodore Roosevelt strongly believed that each and every president should be a true leader. Roosevelt also developed the term of "Muckrakers" and stated his views on them. He also expressed his views on the foreign policy.
Roosevelt held true to his beliefs that a president should lead by his actions. Roosevelt accomplished many things during his presidency, which implies that he had to have led the country to such success. He took charge by enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Newlands Act, the Elkins Rebate Act, the Monroe Doctrine in Venezuela, along with several others. He also settled national issues, including the infamous Coal Strike, along with enabling the construction of major sites, including, but not limited to, Crater National Lake, the Grand Canyon National Monument and the Panama Canal. Furthermore, Roosevelt proved his leadership after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.
Also in 1906, Roosevelt coined the term "Muckrake", which is the name applied to American journalists, novelists, and critics who during his presidency, attempted to expose the abuses of business and the corruption in politics. Although Roosevelt agreed with many of the charges of the Muckrakers, he asserted that some of their methods were irresponsible.
Roosevelt's foreign policy was based on his belief that nations, like individuals, should pursue a strenuous life, and do their part to maintain peace and order. He felt that...

...Justin Newhouse Period 7
2/4/12
Muckrakers of the 21st Century, Child Labor
Despite common belief, child labor still exists in the United States. In some areas more than others. The government defines child labor as "work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children." There are companies in America that employ kids who;
● are under the required age to do jobs in dangerous environments
● are paid less than minimum wage
● are not even supposed to be in this country (illegal immigrants)
Many of these companies would not be the first place you would look for illegal workers. One such company that was thriving from its illegal ventures was the Agriprocessors Inc. Kosher Slaughterhouse and Meats Packing Plant in Postville, Iowa. The so called “religious” CEO, Sholom Rubashkin was involved in many behind the counter activities. Besides the $35 million dollars he gained illegally through bank fraud, he was a strong supporter of child labor. His company helped provide fake documents for children who were either under-aged or illegal immigrants, so that they would be able to work for him. Kids as young as 13 were working on slippery, blood-covered floors, using ban-saws and other such limb-removing equipment to cut up livestock. They had little of the proper safety equipment. They were mostly paid minimum wage, but there were some kids that were paid...